A large part of the verges along our roads is unsafe. This is apparent from a new report from Rijkswaterstaat that was sent to the House of Representatives by Minister Visser (Infrastructure). AD. Making roadsides safer can save countless road deaths every year, experts say in the newspaper.
It is the first time that Rijkswaterstaat has mapped the safety of verges along the road network. “An extensive inventory of all high-risk situations shows that 42 percent of the motorways and 44 percent of the non-motorways (N-roads, ed.) do not yet meet the latest insights for a safe roadside layout,” it quotes. AD from the report ‘State of the Infrastructure’.
A safe shoulder should be clear of trees, shrubs and other obstacles so that drivers can come to a safe stop in the event of a problem. If that is impossible, there must be a good guard rail. Now the unsafe roadsides cause countless fatal accidents every year, says Robert Louwerse, researcher at the Road Safety Research Foundation (SWOV).
It is not the first time that the alarm has been raised about the danger of roadsides. In 2019, SWOV research also showed that the layout of the verge played a role in 25 of the 63 fatal accidents on N-roads in 2017. A year earlier it was announced that the cabinet would invest €50 million in making N-roads safer, including the removal of trees and placing crash barriers on the agenda. Apparently it hasn’t made enough difference yet.
– Thanks for information from Autoweek.nl